Q&A With Koloff- #137

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This is the Truth Network. Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is set for one flaw. Introducing first, from Lithuania, he weighs 123 kilos, the Russian nightmare, Nikita Kolob. Welcome to another episode of Q&A with Kolob, the devil's nightmare. Today, today, today, long time, old time friend with me today, Tim Quinn, welcome to the Q&A with Kolob. Oh, thank you brother, Nick. How are you doing today? I am doing wonderful and I hope you are.

You are on a different time zone than me, so it's a little earlier where you are than I am. Tell our folks where you are and just a little bit about Tim Quinn. Well, I am in Las Vegas. Some people like to say Viva Las Vegas.

Originally from Ohio, moved out here about 15 years ago. The Lord is leading and that's where I'm at. You've got four sons, four grandkids and a wife of 49 years. Four boys, four grandchildren.

Yeah, four girls versus four boys. And I hope our folks caught that. 49 years of marriage. Congratulations on 49 years of marriage, Tim.

Thank you. So, wow, 49 years. So the golden anniversary will be coming up next year then, right? On your birthday next year, correct. On my birthday. That means we get to have a piece of anniversary cake and a piece of birthday cake on the same day. That will be our sweets for the month.

There you go. Guilt-free day, as Lex Luger and I like to call it. Our guilt-free day. People are like, oh, you have a cheat day. No, we have a treat day.

Cheating doesn't sound very positive. It sounds quite natural, actually. Guilt-free day. Guilt-free day. That is right.

Sunday fun day, as we otherwise call it as well. So 49 years. And we met back in, as you reminded me, in Wheeling, West Virginia years and years ago. How many years ago? Any idea? Take a guess. I'm thinking it was 1999. 1999.

Okay. And of course, you came, we were doing some kind of a wrestling show there. I know there was quite a few variety of wrestlers that were there. You heard about it, decided to come down. That's where you and I connected. And who knew, Tim, all these years later, we'd still be friends. And of course, you've been instrumental in helping me out in the past with a variety of ways. One of which, one of which, when people go to NikitaKolov.com, they get to see the Tim Quinn web design that you originated for me way back when, right? Right.

That is correct. And very, very grateful you really blessed me in that way and being very, very handy whenever I needed to post something or change something. You're like, got it, got it, got it.

Take care of it. And of course, you mentioned, I didn't know this, but you had mentioned that Chuck Norris. You'd helped at some point, you'd helped Chuck Norris, the legendary, I guess, actor and or Texas, Texas Ranger. Wasn't he the Texas Ranger or something? Yeah, he was the Walker, Texas Ranger.

That's the Walker, Texas Ranger. I did a website for him and designed one and then helped his mother-in-law actually with her store. Did the backend store product, put products up and priced and all that stuff. And she would send it out and worked with him for a while. Then he started doing, he found an artesian well on his property and wanted to go in and build a factory to bottle their bottling company, to bottle this water, G-Force water.

And then a marketing company came in when they come in to market his water, they wanted to make everything uniform, so they took over all the web work. I gotcha. Yeah.

Well, Chuck's got an amazing story of his own, doesn't he? Yeah. And so, you just, you dabbled in the web design, now you're not really, that's not really what you do. I haven't really, yeah, I haven't really designed any lately because like I've told you before that it's kind of moved on. They've went to different coding that I'm not really a fan of, like WordPress stuff. I prefer the old HTML, which isn't as popular now, which I don't know why, because it's still the best format.

So, most of the people are just wanting their WordPress stuff, so I've kind of went to have that. In fact, also, which I hadn't told you, my eyes bothered me a lot. I've got cataracts, a little bit of cataracts, and I'm actually going to be an optometrist here this month to see about getting them removed. So, that's a prayer for you, my friend.

Well, we will, and for all those out there listening, we're going to pray for Tim Quinn and those cataracts. So, well, you're a lovely bride. You guys have been so wonderful over the years to just host me. Of course, when you were in Ohio and Zanesville, for those who maybe don't know, is really kind of, it's the next, I guess the biggest town, Columbus, Ohio, right? It kind of be near, at least near Columbus, Ohio? 55 minutes east.

55 minutes east from Columbus. And so, you've hosted me there, you've hosted me when I've come out to Vegas for business conventions, and you've opened doors of opportunity for me to preach out there and do ministry work out there in Las Vegas. And so, you've been very gracious in supporting and helping KOLA for Christ Ministries, of which I'm very, very thankful for, Tim. We appreciate it. We've loved every minute of it. Well, I think some of my wife's favorite time was making your chicken and gravy fried chicken mashed potatoes and gravy dinners. You know, speaking of that Sunday fun day, yes, your wife is an amazing cook, and you were gracious, like some of my posse from, you know, we were, I think it was part of the nutrition company we were marketing, now known as Body Pro, which Lex and I have been drinking that stuff for about 15 years.

And anyway, we were out there for convention. I don't know how many we have, 8, 10 of our friends over there. 22 at one time. 22, oh my gosh, I did not think it was that. Wow, Katie, I love you. Thank you, Katie, for cooking for all those people.

Wow, 22. Well, it's an amazing friendship. And let's segue here, because it is Q&A with KOLA, but I want to give you the opportunity, Tim, to ask me some questions. I knew you grew up as a wrestling fan, but I don't know what you're going to ask me, but this is always the funniest part of the show for me.

I'm like, whoo, what are they going to come with? So fire away your first question. Okay, well I don't know if you've ever shared this with anybody before, but I wanted to ask you about your relationship with Joe, Red Warrior animal. My relationship with Joe. And yeah, what's interesting that some know, some don't.

Of course, if they've read Nikita, A Tale of the Ring of Redemption, they will know this full story. But yeah, we went way back to our college days, and I was in charge of recruiting for my college. And so I'm scouring the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and I see all these in the sports section, all conference, this person, that person. I'm like, I wonder if I could actually get any of these guys to come over to Golden Valley and play ball with me. And I didn't know any of them.

I just saw their pictures in the newspaper. And of course, that's back in the day, Tim, when you could pick up what was called the, they had the yellow pages and they had the white pages. And for those who aren't old enough to know what I'm referring to, go Google. It was called a phone book. And of course, the yellow pages was the business, all the business numbers. And then the white pages was just residence.

It would list your address in there and your phone number. Pretty crazy, really. Yeah, we think back on it.

It's kind of crazy. But anyway, so I found Lauren Itis' name, and I'm like, it can't be too many of those. And found his name, called the number. Of course, I don't know if it was mom or dad, whoever answered, introduced myself, who I was, and said, hey, I'm part of the recruiting team here in Golden Valley and would love to invite you, your son, Joe, come over to the campus.

See if maybe it'd be an option for him. Well, all that to say, they came, they scheduled. I got to actually give them the campus tour.

And I remember it like it was yesterday. And we always did it in the winter season when the basketball teams were playing. And so we would give them the nickel tour. We'd feed them in the good old healthy college cafeteria and then treat them to the ball game that night. And here's a little note that I don't often mention.

The coach of the basketball team at Golden Valley was a guy named Flip Saunders. You know that name, Tim, by chance? Would your company, business, or you personally like to partner with me in supporting Koloff for Christ Ministries, the Man Up Show, and Man Up Minutes? Go to koloff.net and click the donate button.

You can give monthly, annually, or one time. God bless you for making a difference around the world. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Koloff here and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?

Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway, Facebook. Go look up my new fan page, Nikita Koloff Fans, and like it and follow today. If you would like to support Koloff for Christ Ministries, for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration. For a gift of $50, Nikita will include his book, Wrestling with Success. And for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption. Go to www.koloff.net and donate today.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Saunders is very familiar. So Flip played for the Golden Gophers, Minnesota Golden Gophers, and he wasn't really big enough to play in the NBA, so his first college coaching job was Golden Valley. Well, he went on to have a major career. I mean, he eventually coached Detroit in the NBA, head coach. He was head coach for a long time of the Minnesota Timberwolves. But Flip Saunders, and by the way, Joe did decide to come to Golden Valley.

He was so entertained by the game that night. He comes, he and I and Flip used to play horse and pig all the time before basketball practice. Now, for the record, Joe and I didn't play basketball.

I couldn't dribble a ball if my life depended on it. But I could play horse and I could play pig. And yes, we actually beat Flip Saunders in pig and horse, even though he was the pro and we were the amateurs.

So anyway. So yeah, so that's how Joe and I first met back in the 70s, back in the 70s. And of course, then we went on to obviously know that he went on to be the road warrior in the career that we had there. So great question, and thank you for letting me share that information about Flip Saunders.

So what's your next question? Well, he was actually instrumental in helping you get into wrestling, let me. He was.

He was. His kind of turnabout is fair play, I suppose. Maybe he used that expression because he would eventually, he'd make the phone call and share the storyline of a nephew for Ivan Koloff. And gave me Jim Crockett Jr.'s phone number, the promoter, to where I would then in turn make that phone call.

And lo and behold, show up in Charlotte the day that Jim Crockett said to be in his office. And the old cliche goes, the rest is history. Right. So you got another question for me, Tim? Yeah. Tell us a little bit about your relationship with Uncle Ivan. So an interesting, so you know, I didn't know Ivan from Adam. Wait a minute, that's one of your son's names, right? Yeah, right. Although he was your uncle and Adam is my son, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I know Adam now, but I didn't know Adam. Yeah, your son until we met.

But, so I didn't know Ivan from Adam, to use a favorite expression. But, you know, we met in the hallways of Charlotte that day and really had kind of an instant connection. And for the next two, two and a half years, he and I and Don Curnodle would drive the highways and the byways of the Carolinas and Virginia and Georgia. And, you know, we back in those days, Tim, we wrestled just about every night and different high school gym and armory and sometimes the big venues, right?

The Richmond Coliseum or Norfolk Scope or Greensboro Coliseum. And so, you know, we would occasionally, you know, the Omni in Atlanta, you know, so we'd have some bigger venues, but a lot of times just a little cracker box gym or something, you know. And so we spent a lot of time together on the road. And then also though, like if we had, if we were staying, you know, back then, you know, it wasn't the millions of dollars that these guys are making now. I mean, you know, we made just a small stipend, the guarantee, I'll say this, here was the guarantee, like if there were only five people in the building, we knew our guarantee was $50. That was like for the night, that would have been our payoff for the night. Minimum pay, $50. Now, obviously, if we put more people in the building, that was the incentive, right, to get people in the building.

The bigger the building, the bigger the crowd, the bigger the gate, the more you potentially could make. And so, you know, we kind of pinched pennies back then. So, like, we would, Ivan and I would share a hotel room together and split the cost on the hotel room and I'd pack a cooler, you know.

And we would divvy up the cost of fuel, like for real, like the guys in our car, it was called trans, paying trans, you know, to one another for transportation costs. And so, Ivan and I got to, you know, know each other really, really well, got to know his family, his children. And of course, you know, we would, beyond wrestling, you know, we would become even closer as I invited him to a revival in Concord, North Carolina in 1995. And he showed up one night and showed up at the altar that night, gave his life to the Lord that night. And cool story, because he was instantly, now, if you knew him prior to that night, you know, he had some addictions and, you know, he talked about it publicly and, you know, he had alcohol, tobacco, drug addiction.

I mean, he was, you know, in some ways in a bad way, right? But on that night, Tim, man, he was set free, like for real, like he was set free of all of those addictions, alcohol, tobacco, drugs. And I don't know, he may have, I don't know, another cuss word maybe ever even came out of his mouth after that encounter with Jesus at the altar in 1995. And then wherever he went, like he did a lot of signings and for the Children's Miracle Network and tons and tons of Walmarts, man, he'd bring his Bible everywhere. He just set that Bible on the autograph table and he wouldn't say a word until somebody referenced it or made a, you know, said something about it.

Man, then he'd open up and just talk about how Jesus changed his life, you know, pretty amazing story. Yeah, he was a wonderful person, loved him to pieces. Yes, sir. Well, we've got time for one more question if you've got one more. Let me see, I've got a long story, but just think you could probably abbreviate it to how you came to the Lord.

Well, yeah, I can give the, what we call, what Lex calls the elevator version or the, I call the Reader's Digest version. And, you know, obviously I had this little man, the man that was praying for you, that just breaks me up every time. Buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy. I'll tell, I'll tell, I'll tell that part of the story for those who maybe never heard it. So buddy, yeah, so, so, you know, I have this career as we're talking about with Ivan go on to, you know, partner, you know, come to superpowers, partner with Dusty Rhodes, you know, wrestle all the greats, right? The, the stings, the Lugers, the, the road warriors, the, the blackjack mulligans, the Wahoo McDaniel's, the, you know, the Ric Flair's of the world and the Rick Rude's, you know, Stone Cold Steve Austin, you know, mean Mark Callas, AKA Undertaker, you know? And yeah, it's just a lot of the guy, a lot of the legendary guys I was fortunate to be in the ring with walk away under my own terms, kind of what's life hold next for Nikita Kolov, realized I was successful, but I was unfulfilled. I actually write about it in my other book, wrestling with success, about how it was successful, but unfulfilled, was diversifying into business, met this couple, Dick and Charlotte Elston in business and who invited me to their church and, and eventually accepted their invitation. And the 17, October, 1993 walked an aisle, not to beat the nature boy in the squared circle, but I walked out to meet the real champion for the world.

The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Prince of peace, Jesus Christ. And man, Tim, that just changed everything. I had a real encounter that night and, and life's never been the same since. Yeah. And what about Buddy? Buddy, man.

So thank you for the reminder. So end of the service, this elderly man comes up, you know, look kind of pale and, and introduce himself. He said, I'm not a wrestling fan.

My name's Buddy. He goes, I got to tell you this story. I go, okay. He goes, five years ago, five years ago, I was watching television, surfing through the channels, wrestling's on. I pause and I start watching it. And he goes, I look, he goes, I'm like, why am I watching it?

I don't even like wrestling. Why am I watching this? And he goes, you were on doing an interview, Nikita. And he said, then the Lord spoke to my heart and said, these words, here's the quote. He said, the Lord said, Buddy, pray for that man's salvation. I have a call to ministry on his life.

And Buddy goes, he, you know, he starts kind of getting a little choked up, a little teary eyed. He goes, he goes, I've prayed for you faithfully every day for the last five years. And he goes, I was not coming to church today. I did not feel well. I kind of argued with God about coming. I'm like, God, I don't want to go.

I don't feel good. He goes, but he kept prodding me and kept prompting me to come. And so I came.

I was obedient. I came, I sat in the back on the floor here, did not know you were here until you walked across the front to come to the altar. And the minute I saw you, I was like, oh my gosh, that's the guy I've been praying for for five years. And that's where he got so choked up. And he said, Nikita, he goes, God blessed me today to witness you with my own eyes, surrender your life to Jesus. And Buddy didn't live much longer after that, actually. And he did not look well that day, but I'm so grateful that he shared that story with me and how much it impacted me that day. And now, all these years later, as you're bringing it up, for others to hear that.

So here's the moral of that story. God puts it on your heart to pray for somebody. Don't stop praying for them. Keep praying, because you never know. You may not get to actually witness that person coming to Jesus.

But then again, you might. But at very least, maybe you'll hear that they did surrender their life to the Lord. So I appreciate the questions, Tim.

Tim Quinn, Viva Las Vegas. I thank you for being on Q&A with Koloff today. And please give a hug to that lovely bride, Katie, of yours for me, would you?

I sure will. All right, well, and thank all of you for tuning in to another episode. Hope you enjoyed the questions and conversation today.

And go out and make it your best day ever. God bless you. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to koloff.net and donate today. Go to koloff.net and download the Truth Network app today. Nikita Koloff, the Russian nightmare. I'll be hosting this once in a lifetime trip, December 27, 2023 to January 5, 2024.

Your pastor will never be the same. Go to koloff.net to get registered today. Nikita Koloff here.

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